- This topic has 7 voices and 7 replies.
-
Posts
-
The following is a transcribed copy of a 1943 official bulletin from Dr. Plecker to Virginia county officials which includes a watchlist of surnames.
Commonwealth of Virginia
Department of Health
Bureau of Vital Statistics Richmond
January 1943
Local Registrar, Physicians Health Officers, Nurses, School Superintendents and Clerks of the Courts
Dear Co-workers:
Our December 1942 letter to local registrars, also mailed to the clerks, set forth the determined effort to escape from the negro race of groups of “free issues;” or descendants of the “free mulattoes” of early days, so listed prior to 1865 in the United State census and various types of State records, as distinguished from slave negroes.
Now that these people are playing up the advantage gained by being permitted to give “Indian” as the race of the child’s parents on birth certificates, we see the great mistake made in not stopping earlier the organized propagation of the racial falsehood. They have been using the advantage thus gained as an aid to intermarriage into the white race and to attend white schools, and now for some time, they have been refusing to register with war draft boards as negroes from Caroline County were sentenced to prison on January 12 in the United States Court at Richmond for refusing to obey the draft law unless permitted to classify themselves as “Indians.”
Some of these mongrels, finding that they have been able to sneak in their birth certificates unchallenged as Indians are now making a rush to registrar as white. Upon investigation we find that a few local registrars have been permitting such certificates to pass through their hands unquestioned and without warning our office of the fraud. Those attempting this fraud should be warned that they are liable to a penalty of one year in the penitentiary (Section 5099 of the Code). Several clerks have likewise been actually granting them license to marry whites, or at least to marry amongst themselves as Indian or white. The danger of this error always confronts the clerk who does not inquire carefully as to the residence of the woman when he does not have positive information. The law is explicit that the license be issued by the clerk of the county or city in which the woman resides.
To aid all of you in determing just which are the mixed families, we have made a list of their surnames by counties and cities, as complete as possible at this time. This list should be preserved by all, even by those counties and cities not included, as these people are moving around over the State and changing race at the new place. A family has just been investigated which was always recorded as negro around Glade Springs, Washington County, but which changed to white and married as such in Roanoke County. This is going on constantly and can be prevented only by care on the part of local registrars, clerks, doctors, health workers, and school authorities.
Please report all know or suspicious cased to the Bureau of Vital Statistics, giving names, ages, parents, and as much other information as possible. All certificates of these people showing “Indian” or “White” are now being rejected and returned to the physician or midwife, but local registrars hereafter must not permit them to pass their hands uncorrected or unchallenged and without a note of warning to us. One hundred and fifty thousand other mulattoes in Virginia are watching eagerly the attempt of their pseudo-Indian brethren, ready to follow in a rush when the fist have made a break in the dike.
Very truly yours,
(signature)
W. A. Plecker, M.D. State Registrar of Vital Statistics
(attached to the above letter is the list of surnames by county as follows)
Albemarle:
Moon, Powel, Pumphrey
Amherst:
(Migrants to Allegheney and Campbell) Adcock (Adcox), Beverly (this family is now trying to evade the situation by adopting the name of Burch or Birch, which was the name of the white mother of the present adult generation), Branham, Duff, Floyd, Hamilton, Hartless, Hicks, Johns, Lawless, Nukles (Knuckles), Painter, Ramsey, Redcross, Roberts, Southwards (Suthards, Southerds, Southers). Sorrells, Terry, Tyree, Willis, Clark, Wood
Bedford:
McVey, Maxey, Branham, Burley (see Amherst)
Rockbridge:
(migrants to Augusta), Cash, Clark, Coleman, Duff, Floyd, Hartless, Hicks, Mason, Mayse(Mays), Painters, Pults, Ramsey, Southerds (see Amherst), Sorrell, Terry, Tyree, Wood, Johns
Charles City:
Collins, Dennis, Bradby, Howell, Langston, Stewart, Wynn, Custalow(Custaloo), Dungoe, Holmes, Miles, Page, Allmond, Adams, Hawkes, Spurlock, Doggett
King William:
Collins, Dennis, Bradby, Howell, Lanston, Stewart, Wynn, Custalow(Custaloo), Dungoe, Bolnus, Miles, Page, Allmond, Adams, Hawkes, Spurlock, Doggett
New Kent:
Collins, Bradby, Stewart, Wynn Adkins, Langston
Henrico and Richond City:
(see Charles City, New Kent, and King William)
Caroline:
Byrd, Fortune, Nelson (see Essex)
Essen and King and Queen:
Nelson, Fortune, Byrd, Cooper, Tate, Hammond, Brooks, Boughton, Prince, Mitchell, Robinson
Elizabeth City and Newport News:
Stewart (descendants of Charles City families)
Halifax:
Epps (Eppes), Stewart (Stuart), Coleman, Johnson, Martin, Talley, Sheppard (Shepard), Young
Norfolk County and Portsmouth:
Sawyer, Bass, Weaver, Locklear (Locklair), King, Bright, Porter
Westmoreland:
Sorrells, Worlds (Worrell), Atwells, Butridge, Okiff
Greene:
Shifflett, Shiflet
Prince William:
Tyson, Segar (see Fauquier)
Fauquier:
Hoffman (Huffman), Riley, Colvin, Phillips, (see Prince William)
Lancaster:
Dorsey (Dawson)
Washington:
Beverly, Barlow, Thomas, Hughes, Lethcoe, Worley
Roanoke County:
Beverly (see Washington)
Lee and Smyth:
Collins, Gibson (Gipson), Moore, Boins, Ramsey, Delph, Bunch, Freeman, Mise, Bolden (Bolin), Mullins, Hawkins – Chiefly Tennessee “Melungeons”
Scott:
Dingus (see Lee)
Russell:
Keith, Castell, Stillwell, Meade, Proffitt (see Lee and Tazewell)
Tazewell:
Hammed, Duncan, (see Russell)
Wise:
(see Lee, Scott, Smyth, and Russell Counties)
End of document
THE FOLLOWING HAS BEEN COPIED FROM: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/POCA/POC_law.html
We wish to retain the text here in case the original web site is removed from access as other sites of interest have been. The site contains pictures and a copy of a pleckerized marriage certificate captioned:
“A marriage certificate from 1940. Note that “mixed” is handwritten below the typed designation “Indian.”
The interesting tid bit about such a bent ply is Plecker did a good job of identifying families of indian heritage… smile!
Pila huk (thanks) from me as well. This info may actually provide an important documentary link in my faily tree, since my paternal granmother’s surname is Colvin, and I am told at least that somewhere along the line, we supposedly have ties to Virginia.
Walter Ashby Plecker was an evil man!!!!!!! I am sure that he was not the only one but he is definitely an example of a racist. This is why so many of my people do not know who we really are. Thanks for sharing!!
Erica Lewis
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
